Brown: we have kept our tax promises

Gordon Brown today was defending his decision to raise taxes in yesterday's Budget, while admitting that the decision had been "a political gamble".

Interviewed this morning, he said the Budget increases were a "hard and difficult" choice to make but claimed they would allow the NHS to provide the British people with the "best insurance policy in the world".

"We will be judged on whether we can make the health service better," he said today. "I believe we can.

"Yes it's a gamble politically, but it's not a gamble with the economy because the economy is stable.

"I do accept it's a hard and difficult choice I've made, but I want the best health service and so do the British public," the chancellor added.

His comments came as the prime minister and senior cabinet members set out to sell yesterday's Budget, Labour's boldest yet, to voters.

At its centre is a £40bn, five-year programme of investment in the NHS largely funded by increases in both employers' and employees' national insurance payments.

"You pay a lot in America and you pay a lot in France. We have to pay for our healthcare and the question is how" Mr Brown said. "I've put the money in, it's now up to the health service to deliver."

Mr Brown denied that the Budget was an attack on middle England, saying the new child tax credit would offset the increase in national insurance.

He also denied that the Budget marked a radical break with promises made by New Labour before the last two general elections.

"What we are doing is following through what I said in 1997," Mr Brown told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"I wanted economic stability first of all and we have got economic stability in this country. I wanted us to solve our problems of unemployment and we have got more people in work than ever before, 1.5 million more people in jobs.

"I want to lay down a plan for the development of our public services for the future and that is exactly what we did. And then we saved money from cutting debt, we saved money from cutting unemployment, we saved money from waste," he said.

The chancellor was adamant that voters had not been misled by Labour's pledges not to raise direct taxation.

"We have kept all our promises on tax. It is a complete falsehood to suggest we haven't," he said.

Mr Brown refused to rule out future rises in national insurance, insisting that no chancellor would bind his hands in that way.

Later today, the chancellor will join Tony Blair at a London hospital to promote the Budget - while the health secretary, Alan Milburn, will make a statement to the House of Commons setting out reforms that will increase investment.

They will include new financial incentives for hospital performance; more managerial freedom for top performing hospitals and trusts; powers to be devolved to frontline staff; increasing choice for patients; and reform of social services care for the elderly.

Mr Milburn is also planning a statutory system for independent audit and inspection of the NHS, as well as independent scrutiny of patient complaints.

The new auditor will prepare an annual report for parliament which will account for the money allocated to the NHS.